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Abstract:

Italy has been culturally explored by Russians since the 18th century, and in the 20th century, with the development of sightseeing, tours and excursions, mass pilgrimages to the Apennine Peninsula became an easily accessible destination for Russian professors and poor, democratically-minded students. After the revolution, Italy remained a promised land for Russian Soviet writers. The Italian myth was formed during the years of the first Russian Revolution and remained relevant during the Soviet era. Italy, as the materia prima, inspired Russian writers to create paired images of victory over the laws of nature and the troubling question of whether humanity could ever overcome its own spiritual inertia, physical limitations, and existential separation from a world where human suffering and death would be conquered. Crossing the border is presented as an initiation rite, transforming the “natural” man into a man of a new culture. Stretching hands for friendly handshaking (Pavlenko), meetings and conversations (M. Shaginyan, K. Paustovsky, and E. Yevtushenko), translations of books into foreign languages, and creative gatherings of writers of different nationalities (K. Paustovsky, E. Yevtushenko), the perfection of ancient and Renaissance art and technology (V. Vishnevsky, N. Aseev, M. Shaginyan, K. Paustovsky) — all of these are signs of intellectual and spiritual progress, a new level of interpersonal communication, and the embryo of future planetary humanity.